A new season of This Being Human is almost here! We'll be back soon with more fascinating conversations with amazing people whose lives, ideas, and art have been shaped by Muslim culture.

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Haroon Siddiqui has had many titles. Reporter, columnist, editor... the list goes on. He can now add author to his resume with the release of his memoir "My Name is Not Harry". It's a profound reflection on his career, Canadian values, his immigrant superpowers and the role he believes luck, or perhaps divine destiny, has played in his incredible life.

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Sandra Saenz joins us to talk about the art of makeup, navigating the world of beauty as a Mexican Muslim, and her first video art exhibition.

She is the first Mexican hijabi makeup artist to secure agency representation in the USA. Her work has been featured in magazines and advertisements worldwide for Sephora. She's currently a Global Brand Ambassador for KVD Beauty.

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Photographer Hassan Hajjaj has an iconic style that blends elements of pop art, hip hop culture and North African fashion. It spans series like Kesh Angels, which depicts biker women in Marakesh, as well as celebrity photoshoots and album art.

He joins AR to talk about developing his unique style, his initial reluctance to call himself an artist, and how he's seen the photography world change for the next generation.   

See more of Hassan Hajjaj's work here:

https://www.193gallery.com/artists/84-hassan-hajjaj/overview/  

Or on his Instagram page:

https://www.instagram.com/hassanhajjaj_larache/?hl=en  

If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, go to agakhanmuseum.org/thisbeinghuman  

The Museum wishes to thank The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation for their generous support of This Being Human.

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Egyptian artist Wael Shawky explores the connections between history and myth. His work includes installations and sculpture, as well as films like Cabaret Crusades and I Am Hymns of the New Temple, which use marionettes to revisit big moments in history from a new perspective.

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Shezad Dawood is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blends stories, reality and symbolism to engage with big questions about humanity, and explore alternative futures.

He speaks to AR about his latest project, Night in the Garden of Love, an immersive experience that uses virtual reality to bring visitors into a fantastical world. It's based on a science fiction novella of the same name by the late musician and polymath Yusef Lateef. Shezad talks about Lateef's unique view of the world, collaborating with an artist who he never met, and his own lifelong discomfort with choosing an artistic medium.

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Marina Tabassum is a Bangladeshi architect whose work includes Bangladesh's underground Museum of Independence and the award-winning Bait Ur Rouf mosque. She talks about working with local materials, the rich landscape of Bangladesh's capital city, Dhaka, and how architects should embrace social responsibility, as with her $200 houses for displaced Bangladeshis.

Marina Tabassum is the founder of Marina Tabassum Architects and the academic director of the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements.

This episode originally aired in November, 2021.

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Kameelah Janan Rasheed is an artist whose work focuses on Black knowledge production, re-shaping history, and unlearning the things we think we know. Her projects, spanning photography, installations, text, sound, and more, have been shown around the globe and earned her a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. She joins us to talk about resisting easy definitions, finding new ways to think about the marks that we leave on the world, and her lifelong engagement with emerging technologies.

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Ausma Malik was the first woman in a hijab to be elected to public office in Canada, and the first Muslim-identifying, hijab-wearing woman on Toronto city council. She was recently appointed Deputy Mayor of Toronto.

She also happens to be the sister of This Being Human host Abdul-Rehman Malik. In this episode, A.R. asks Ausma the questions only a brother can ask. She talks about some of the pivotal moments that sent her down her current path, her reluctant entrance to politics, and how family and art shaped her values.

The Museum wishes to thank The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation for their generous support of This Being Human.

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As Pakistan's first female architect, Yasmeen Lari left a major imprint on the country's visual identity, with modern buildings like the Finance and Trade Centre, the Taj Mahal Hotel in Karachi, and the Pakistan State Oil Head Office. But her career later took a turn from working for the powerful few, towards assisting the most vulnerable members of society. She now focuses on the intersection of architecture, environmental activism and social justice, working to build sustainable structures for displaced people and helping to set up self-sufficient economies. She calls her approach Barefoot Social Architecture. The Museum wishes to thank The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation for their generous support of This Being Human.

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